spit and blow

Hi, now although the weather is cooling down, the sun is holding on. By 9am, it's kinda hot to cycle but not very. The traffic on the roads is outrageous at some places and with many a car driver busy on his cell-phones, you gotta watch out. Generally speaking, Chandigarh is a clean Indian city, however it's not like it doesn't get dusty, and especially so when the cleaners are out brooming the roads and burning the dry leaves at every corner, the deluge of vehicles moving to their designated office parking area, and the DULEVO road-cleaning truck dusting the roads and sucking the dust thus raised, in vain,.

For a motorists, the vehicular pollution and the dust might not be too much of a problem but for a heavily breathing cyclist, it is as unpleasant as it is (possibly) unhealthy. Now the nose is a great machine itself, it has a moist membranous lining covered with hair. This functions to moisten the air you breathe. this is necessary else your lungs would start to dry quickly, also you might know that this inhaled air is gonna donate all the oxygen to your blood that is networked very profusely in the lungs. The hair in the nose act like a sieve and filter the  air you breathe. You might not think of it as efficient but it sure is. So here's the suggestion, if you're cycling in a particularly dusty, dirty area, have no compunctions about blowing your nose (in a handkerchief of course) to constantly keep your sieve clean. Quite a bit of the dirt will still enter your nose, much of it will get adsorbed on the mucous secreted in your nose. This mucous collects and you have the option of spitting it out.

Spitting is a very bad habit, as gross as it looks, it can even spread disease but the part of the world I live it, I guess it comes under good manners; why else would people be spitting left, right and center all the time, rich and poor alike. At times you have to dodge through the projectiles emanating through the mouths of the citizens. So I have imbibed the virtue. Time to time, though not too frequently, I do donate back to the city what it shoves down my nose, along with some contribution of my own (mucous). Even as I type this, it sounds evil to me but trust me, doing it is quite a release. Besides, people might even smile at you seeing you do it; if you wish them Good Morning, they'll glare you down. On second thought, they'll abuse you anyway. Everybody on the roads in my city is hypertensive and in a hurry, earning money to pay for the inevitable heart-diseases they'll contract by these habits.

Cheers! Cycle on and hey before I forget, keep drinking water through the way.

Epilogue: Buying a face mask filter might be a great idea but you'll probably get gawked at by everyone that passes you and it might be difficult to breathe through it anyway, considering that breathing can become heavy when you push those pedals.